The New Focus on Immunotherapy Drugs for Cancer Treatment

Dear Friend,

No single cure-all cancer immunotherapy drug exists at this time. Instead, modern medicine offers several FDA approved single and combination drug options.

What do they do to the body?

As outlined in the Vox article "Is Cancer Immunotherapy Really a Miracle Cure?," these treatments prompt a person's immune system to destroy cancer cells when it will not do so on its own. Immuno-oncology research began as early as the 1890s when Dr. William Coley discovered he could shrink tumors in some patients by injecting bacteria directly into their tumors.

Immuno-oncology was mostly ignored for over a century because of more evident successes in surgical, radiation and chemo therapies. Yet, many researchers now believe it could be the key to curing cancer. Modern technologies have helped us better understand, at the cellular level, how cancer forms and spreads and how the body responds to different treatments.

Are there risks?

Every treatment available poses risks. Like chemotherapy, immunotherapy drugs have toxic side effects and can even cause adverse immune system reactions. Currently, these immunotherapy drugs do benefit many patients.

For those patients that react positively to treatment, the following happens:

• Their immune systems destroy targeted cancer cells and tumors.

• They receive remission benefits for months longer than other treatments.

• Some receive benefits for years longer.

Researchers are only beginning to understand how they can use modified viruses to prompt the immune system to work harder and more efficiently. As the article outlines, their biggest challenge is determining who will benefit and how to create new treatments for everyone else.

If you have exhausted all other options, our personalized Issels immunotherapy with non-toxic vaccine and cell therapies prepared from your own immune cells could turn everything around.

Read more interesting articles on the "Issels Integrative Immuno-Oncology" news/blog posted every Tuesday and Thursday. Check It Out Now »

Legislation Would Improve Care for Cancer Patients through Palliative Care Research

Cancer patients receiving the best medical care can still be left fending for themselves in coping with pain, stress and other auxiliary effects of treatment. A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress this past summer aims to ease their burden by making palliative care more widely available.

Everyone understands that cancer is a disease, but many people really know nothing more about it than that. If you have recently been diagnosed, the how's and why's behind cancer become concerns that move to the forefront of your mind. Here are answers to some of the more common questions that arise with cancer patients.